King Luther Capital Management Corp Sells 4,988 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

King Luther Capital Management Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 1.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 263,380 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 4,988 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp's holdings in Accenture were worth $93,100,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Accenture by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 11,448 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,047,000 after acquiring an additional 5,038 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture during the third quarter worth $1,040,000. M&G PLC grew its stake in Accenture by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 292,808 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $103,361,000 after purchasing an additional 74,438 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% in the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $12,581,000 after buying an additional 14,724 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $52,247,000 after buying an additional 27,168 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ACN. Guggenheim raised their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $329.00 to $395.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $368.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $357.04 on Thursday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.25. The firm's 50 day moving average is $356.03 and its 200-day moving average is $328.39.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. Accenture's revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This trade represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.

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